I wakened on my hot, hard bed;
Upon the pillow lay my head;
Beneath the pillow I could hear
My little watch was ticking clear.
I thought the throbbing of it went
Like my continual discontent,
I thought it said in every tick:
I am so sick, so sick, so sick;
O death, come quick, come quick, come quick,
Come quick, come quick, come quick, come quick.

Frances Darwin Cornford

I love this poem –
its feverishness; its rhythm; its deceptive, despairing simplicity.

♦

The best poetry, I think, is simple but true.

Note:This is the first in a series of posts where I feature poems or quotes I love. It was Jane Brocket who first alerted me to Francis Darwin Cornford. She quoted another poem by Cornford on her blog.
(Oh, and in case you’re wondering – the quoted material itself doesn’t count towards my self-imposed quota of twenty-one words!)

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6 thoughts on “Other people’s words – Part I”

It is, isn’t it? I love the way the poet repeats the same phrase over and over at the end, like a watch – which seems such a simple device, almost like a nursery rhyme, and yet which ends up leaving you feeling filled with (almost bludgeoned by) her own desperation and despair.

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